Robin Soderling defeats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round of 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
The second longest match of the day saw the 2011 Marseille champion Robin Soderling make it through to the quarterfinal of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open after a hard fought battle against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the round of 16. He
sent the Frenchman packing with a 7-6(8), 7-5 score line, taking two hours and thirteen minutes of play.
The match was all about Soderling and his natural ability to lob and float the ball like a dream. The Frenchman played a trembling match while his opponent was the better player for the most of the match. Although Tsonga put up
a great fight and scored thirteen aces in the whole match, he couldn’t handle his opponent who entered the field with big shots and had the tendency to grab points quickly. His serves were weak and harmless which allowed Soderling to collect seven percent
more service points more in total.
Tsonga made a number of unforced errors against Soderling and despite a great start he couldn’t hold his level and lost the first set. Strolling on ahead to 4-3, Tsonga may have thought that he had this set in his bag, but the
Swede came out all guns blazing and sneaked the first set 7-6(8). The Swede showed great signs of real determination and got from 3-4 to 7-6 in a flash. Soderling, who is a great baseliner with early ball taking and very aggressive shots, scored 70 percent
of points on service, 37 percent of points on return and 51 percent of points to total en route to the second set.
The second set saw Soderling making an aggressive start to the match as he broke Tsonga’s serve in the very first game of the second set. Soderling displayed some good tennis and scored 76 percent of his first serve and 60 percent
on his second serve to clinch the final set with a 7-5 score line.
With his backhand bearing the load, Soderling won just as many points as he could. Soderling remained patient throughout the match and showed some courtesy towards Tsonga’s shots by waiting until the right time to pull the trigger.
The whole match didn’t see much of a difference between the two, apart from a couple of points.
Soderling will face Roger Federer in Friday’s quarterfinal, a re-match of their quarterfinal showdown at Shanghai Masters last year, where Federer sent the Swede packing with a double breadstick. Federer is one of the streakier
players on clay courts and can be excessively dangerous for Soderling if his game just started clicking. Still if the world number five showed some terrific performance he might just edge past the Swiss maestro.
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